Chelsea Right To Let Mata Go, Jose Wants Someone For Champs League Success

Chelsea Were Right To Let Mata Go, Jose Wants Someone For Champs League Success

Fans and journalists everywhere died a little bit inside when Juan Mata left Chelsea. Yes the loss of such a good player is never good news, nor is handing him over to one of your biggest rivals – even if there is a bit of a double agent situation going on, but more on that later. The real loss is going to be the fact that we can no longer use the phrase ‘Special Juan’ or indeed a pun with the ‘Mata’ half of his name. Devastating. Bye bye 'What's the Mata', hello 'Oscar winner'.

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That aside, the £37 million deal for Mata to switch from Blue to Red has caused rather a lot of moaning. Obviously Arsene Wenger led the pack – he may not see the fouls his players make, but transfers that might have an adverse effect on his side? You can bet your season ticket he manages to see that.

Old Mourinho foe Manuel Pellegrini also had a pop, repeating the Wenger party line, that the transfer was unfair and would actually help Chelsea, given they have played United twice in the league.

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They cannot meet in the final of the Micky Mouse cup either (if Chelsea were in that final, we would of course be referring to it as the Capital One cup – good when you win it, not a ’real trophy’ when you do not. Standard.)

The FA Cup will not provide Chelsea with the opportunity to be reunited with Mata either – thanks for that Swansea – but they could face a rather intriguing match up in Europe.

Knowing how the footballing gods work, that would never be out of the question, but first Chelsea have to deal with the return of the man who can ‘score at the Bridge with his eyes closed,’ Munich hero Didier Drogba. What a shame their current crop of forwards cannot do the same! Eto'o may be a big game player, but against Stoke he was utterly dire. In fact, Mourinho may as well call on Harry Redknapp's wife Sandra to do a better job.

Back to the Mata situation, and it was clear that the player had to leave. He was going to be nothing more than a sub under Mourinho, and not even a super one at that.

Mata has his eyes on a spot on the plane to Brazil with defending champions Spain, and sitting on the bench at the Bridge is not the way to book a spot.

It is worth noting he struggled to get into the Spanish squad even when he was the man for Chelsea, so god only knows how he must fear for his future after six months where he may as well have been in the Sahara for all the game time he got.
Chelsea clearly wanted to bring in other players, and already had with Matic, meaning that to bring in anyone else, funds would have to come from somewhere other than the cheque book Roman opens for the Blues.

Luckily for David Moyes, it came from the sale of the two time player of the year. Mourinho’s thoughts on the sale?

You have to wonder if he actually cares that much. Mata has simply not been as good as Oscar, Hazard et al and time and time again that was shown. He also clearly did not gel with Mourinho as a person, which was obvious in the parting shot delivered to the manager.

There is no denying Mata is a great player, and did wonderful things for Chelsea, but Mourinho wants someone who can lead them to a title and Champions League double, not the guy who is pivotal in the Europa League success. Harsh? Perhaps, but in the long run Chelsea will not miss Mata.

Moyes obviously has a great signing but United have far bigger problems than Mata can solve, and need at least three more world class stars.

Chelsea meanwhile have continued to show they are the best club in the world at swooping in and taking players from under their rivals noses, with Mohamed Salah joining the Blues in a slightly less naughty move than Willian’s, but not exactly something that would convince you to leave them alone with your top transfer target in a room either.

So, Juan is out, Salah is in, Liverpool are confused at where their top target went and Wenger is moaning again. All in all a pretty good birthday week for Jose.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter, @RebeccaKnight01, and she also writes for @LaFootyEttes